Freelance opera singer Connie Barnett, with Cyrenius H. Booth Librarian Elizabeth Downs, is starting a drive to increase the small classical record collection at the library through donations. All types of classical records are welcome: solo, chamber, vocal, operatic.

***

SCM Corporation will soon build a 21,300 square foot research and development facility for Smith-Corona, manufacturer of typewriters, as a result of building permits taken out late in July in the office of Newtown Building Official William T. Connolly. The structure will be located on the northeast corner of the intersection with South Main Street and Ethan Allen Road on a 7.5 acre piece of industrially zoned land.

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Newtown Senior Citizens News: When things get hot it’s time to call your local, friendly fire department, and that’s just what we did. Meals and programs of the Newtown Senior Center will be meeting in the large, comfortable, air-conditioned hall of the Sandy Hook Fire House on Riverside Road for the next few weeks until the weather gets a little cooler.

***

Nearly one year to the day since the August 4, 1979, groundbreaking, the tenth religious facility in Newtown is almost ready to open its doors. The new chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Newtown Ward, Yorktown, New York State, is scheduled to open by mid-August, with plans already underway for an open house for the public.

***

After three years as director of guidance at Newtown High School and a total of ten years of service in the Newtown School system, Alfred J. Lodovico has resigned. Mr Lodovico will be advancing his career as the vice-principal in charge of pupil personnel services in the Thornwood area of Westchester County, N.Y.

***

Newtown left no doubt as to which team was the best last Saturday as they crushed Hazardville, 10-2, at North Branford High to win the Connecticut Senior Little League Tournament crown for the first time ever. Newtown is now the Connecticut representative to the New England Regional Tournament.

***

A new associate minister has arrived at the Newtown Congregational Church filling a vacancy which has kept the Search Committee busy since last August. The Rev Steven P. Gordon assumed his duties at the Newtown church on August 1 and has moved into the parsonage in back of the Church House with his wife, Karen, who is a medical technologist at the Veteran’s Memorial Hospital in Meriden.

August 12, 1955

Fifty years from now, Newtown’s present-day youngsters will harken back to a hot humid day in August 1955, recalling the spectacle they saw then, the 250th anniversary parade, which ushered in the day-long series of activities that marked two and one-half centuries of the town’s existence.

***

Climaxing the day-long 250th anniversary celebration last Saturday, a tremendous block dance attended by hundreds of townspeople and their guests, took place at the Newtown Shopping Center, Queen Street, from 8:30 until 1 o’clock in the morning. Even a spate of rain and the threat of a downpour could little dampen the spirits of the crowd which packed the plaza and enjoyed itself immensely.

***

In brief, simple exercises last Saturday afternoon, August 6, Governor Abraham A. Ribicoff dedicated Newtown’s first park to the memory of the late A. Fenn Dickinson, first selectman. Attending the town’s 250th anniversary celebration as the town’s guest of honor, the governor paid a moving tribute to Selectman Dickinson as an official whose greatest qualities were “compassion…love and sympathy for his fellow man.”

***

Some ten days ago the trio, Robert G. Neubauer of Easton, Jack Eckhart of Tashua Hill, Trumbull, and William Krause of Shelton discovered what they believe to be an Indian grave after intensive searching of undeveloped sections of town. A second skeleton was located a few feet away from the first on last Saturday, while the town was celebrating its anniversary. The find has been referred to the Peabody Museum at Yale University for confirmation.

***

Public reaction to the new book, “Newtown, Connecticut, Past and Present”, which made its appearance on the local scene on Saturday, has been one of instant approval.

***

A major exhibition of paintings by Henry Schnakenberg, a resident of Newtown, and sculpture by Henry Kreis, of Essex, will open in the Avery Court at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, next Thursday, August 18, where it will continue through October 2.

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EDMOND TOWN HALL THEATRE: Friday – Saturday, August 12-13: THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH Marilyn Monroe-Tom Ewell; Sunday – Monday, August 14-15: THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE Clark Gable-Susan Hayward; Tuesday – Wednesday, August 16-17, THE WIZARD OF OZ Judy Garland-Ray Bolger; Friday – Saturday, August 18-19, THE PRODIGAL Edmund Purdom-Lana Turner.

August 8, 1930

The formal transfer of the Edmond Town hall to the selectmen, as the legal representatives of the town, will take place on the morning of August 22, at 10 o’clock, standard time. Arthur T. Nettleton, chairman of the building committee, and one of the executors under Miss Hawley’s will, will formally turn over the deed of the new hall to Selectman T.F. Brew, who in turn will give Mr Nettleton, as executor of Miss Hawley’s estate, the deed of the Brick building.

***

Upham’s Miniature golf grounds at Hawleyville on the island in the lake at Upham’s Japanese Tea Garden is attracting large crowds afternoons and evenings. Mr Upham is offering a handsome silver cup to the highest runner up each week.

The Glover Hawley brick house at Hawleyville, near the railroad station, owned by the New York & New Haven railroad, has been sold to a Danbury party, and is being razed to the ground. It is said that the late Elisha Parmalee of Hawleyville helped make the brick of which the house was constructed. In its day it was regarded one of the fine residences of the town.

***

Fred N. Shepard landed a bass weighing five and three-quarter pounds at Taunton Lake, last Friday. Fred has entered it in the big fish contest at Rocano’s store in Danbury.

***

Donald Smith, who fractured his arm in two places by a fall from a heifer’s back, one day, last week, is getting along finely. It appears the two Smith boys and a visitor, went out to the barn yard. The boys took turns on mounting the back of a heifer for a ride. The two others got along all right, but Donald fell on his arm with disastrous results.

***

While bathing in Lake Zoar Monday afternoon, Miss Hazel H. Smith cut one leg on a submerged rock. She was taken to the office of Dr W.F. Desmond to have the wound dressed.

August 11, 1905

Newtown’s Bi-Centennial exercises in commemoration of the first purchase of land from the Indians has passed into history as the greatest event of its kind in the 200 years just gone. The Bi-centennial celebration had its birth in a suggestion made in the meeting of the Men’s club by Ezra L. Johnson.

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Historical Address of EZRA LEVAN JOHNSON: When it became known that as a town we were nearing the Bi-Centennial of two events of historic interest, the purchase from the Indians in 1705 of the land that comprises our township, and also the time when we were incorporated a town by act of the General Court in October, 1711, the question naturally arose, which of these events should be observed, or whether each should come in its turn. The gathering of to-day shows how the question was answered….

***

Newtown

Written for THE BEE by W.D. Smith

Of Richmond, Va.

Green robed from vale to crest,

Rounding like maiden’s breast,

Refuge for Summer rest,

Peaceful Newtown.

Indian coves haunt each nook,

Fairies sport down each brook,

From Taunton hill to Sandy Hook.

Lovely Newtown.

New in the olden time,

Old in the newer time,

Mother-sweet all the time,

Blest old Newtown.

***

The parade, Saturday morning, of the Bi-Centennial was a grand success, and many who saw it said it was as good, if not better than any parade they had seen in larger places.

***

Maria Di Grazia, the Italian girl piano virtuoso, will appear at the Town hall, Friday evening, August 18, and this event is one of unusual interest in musical circles. Concerning Maria Di Grazia the Record Herald says: She revealed a sheer, unbelievable knowledge of the most subtle and accentuations. Her phrasing was distinguished.

***

BASEBALL TOPICS: This week Saturday the crack Woodbury team will be here to try conclusions with the home team. As Woodbury beat Newtown, at Woodbury, earlier in the season by the score of 6 to 5, an interesting struggle will be looked for.